Explain democracy as an order of society. What are the factors preventing people's participation in politics?. (UPSC CSE Mains 2020 - Sociology, Paper 1)
- Democracy is popular sovereignty – in Abraham Lincoln’s words, ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’. At its heart is the concept of the population choosing a government through regular, free, and fair elections.
- The guarantees of liberal democracy are intended to ensure no ethnic, geographic, class, or business interest dominates or exploits others to an unreasonable degree, and that there is fair and universal consent gained for government policies.
- Arguably the importance of liberal democracy is two-fold: no other system of government guarantees the right to free expression of political preference; and no other system promotes progress through peaceful competition between different interests and ideas.
- Liberal democracy, in theory at least, provides a mechanism for some form of rule by proportionate representation, with citizens empowered to bring about change through participation and persuade the powerful to act for the greater good.
- Democracy has endured in part due to its ability to accommodate change from below through expansion of voting rights, and greater protection of civil liberties.
- By contrast authoritarianism is, by its nature, centralized and limiting of free thought and expression. It can accomplish rapid change, but only ordained from above.
- Democracy is more accountable than other governments to its people, responding to their needs, sensitivities e.g. Post-Independence India did not face any famine due to focus on food security while Communist China faced it in the late 1950s
- Rigorous consultation and discussions in a democracy help in better quality of decision making e.g. special status given to scheduled areas and North-East in Constitution of India reflecting their culture, while China trying to curtail freedoms in Hong-Kong and military-dictators doing same in African nations.
- Democracy allows for methods to deal with differences and conflicts e.g. protection to minorities and depressed classes in India, secular nature of Indian state, while in regimes like Nazi Germany propounding Fascist ideas followed racial segregation policy, similar was the case in Apartheid regime in South Africa.
- Democracy enhances the dignity of citizens. Freedom Rights allow one to develop to their fullest potential and be responsible for their own actions. This removes the potential of any violent fallout in case citizens are disaffected by the ruling government. For instances, the absence of any tool of protest in dictatorship regimes in Middle east led to Arab Spring and downfall of such regimes.
- Democracy allows for course corrections by allowing to rectify mistakes e.g. Indian PM apologizing to Sikh community for atrocities in the mid-1980s, Japanese PM doing same for atrocities in Manchuria and South Korea during world war. On the other hand, China continues to repress Tibetan, Uighur ethnicity.
- Thus, democracy may not be the best form of government but definitely better than others, as W. Churchill illustrated in the face of Nazi aggression and need to fight such an ideology. Need is for continuously improving upon lacunas and make it more inclusive e.g. Right to Education, Forest Rights Act, Electoral Reforms etc. in India.
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